“I’ve played with him since I was 8,” Nolan Brannick said. “When we won state junior league about five years ago, he hit it twice and I scored both runs.

“He also brought in the winning run his sophomore year against Dakota.”

The Aquin senior catcher did it again, Saturday, driving in the game-winning run on a single to left against Dakota’s Brandon Lizer for a 2-1 win in the Dakota Regional final.

The win gives Aquin its third straight regional championship.

“I’ve got to owe to Nolan Brannick for getting on base,” Feiner said. “He went 3 for 3 today and he’s been doing things like that all year for us.”

Aquin trailed 1-0 through five innings, but got an offensive spark in the sixth. Bulldogs shortstop Aiden Chang led off with a single to left and reached second on grounder. Blake Little’s RBI single up the middle allowed Chang to score to knot the game up at 1-1.

It ended a drought for Aquin, as the team managed to get runners on base, including the third, fourth and fifth innings when it had runners in scoring position, but couldn’t drive them in.

“We fought through some hits where we’d hit it right at them,” Feiner said, “but we couldn’t get them in.

“We just had to focus because Lizer’s a very good pitcher and we were just finally able to key it up.”

Dakota scored in the first inning on a Drew Zellmer single and outfield error that allowed a runner to reach home plate.

The Indians also loaded the bases in the third inning with one out before a controversial call at the plate allowed Sawyer Shaw to escape from a jam.

Zeller grounded to Chang, who made the force out throw to home. Indians shortstop Kyle Stites’ slide home catapulted Feiner in the air after catching the ball.

The home plate umpire ruled the slide was malicious and called both Zeller and Stites out, which ended the inning.

“I don’t blame umps for much and I don’t like it,” Kauffman said. “I like him and he’s good guy, but he blew that call.

“He said you can’t slide past home plate and that makes no sense to me.”

“I started locating my fastball a little bit better and my curve wasn’t working for me at first,” Shaw said. “It started to break where it wanted to and I switched speeds to mess up their timing.”

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In the seventh, Brannick was aggressive on the basepaths after earning his third hit of the game. The Aquin first baseman advanced to second on a passed ball, then stole third base a pitch before Anthony Townsend struck out.

“Coach (Todd) Kramer always tells me to look for the down angle,” Brannick said. “I got a good jump on it and just went slid to third in time.”

Feiner’s RBI single ended the game and helped the Bulldogs earn their third regional championship.

“It feels great and this is really special with this group of seniors,” Feiner said. “I’m kind of at a loss of words.

And that’s why the third inning was so vital to Dakota in a 2-1 loss in the Dakota Regional final. The Indians had the bases loaded with just one out and needed to build their 1-0 lead.

Dakota first baseman Drew Zeller grounded to Aquin shortstop Aiden Chang, who made the force-out throw to home. Indians shortstop Kyle Stites’ slide home catapulted catcher Adam Feiner in the air after catching the ball.

The home plate umpire ruled the slide was malicious and called both Zeller and Stites out, which ended the inning.

“I don’t blame umps for much and I don’t like it,” Kauffman said. “I like him and he’s good guy, but he blew that call.

“He (the home plate umpire) said he slid past home plate and slid maliciously. He said you can’t slide past home plate and that makes no sense to me. He said it’s like second base, but second base is a raised base and you can stop. You can’t stop at home. That doesn’t make sense.”

Feiner also said he didn’t think the slide was malicious.

“He didn’t do it on purpose,” Feiner said. “He was trying to do a little ‘take-out slide.’

“I thought it was a clean play and I was fine.”

“I think you have to see where he was sliding,” Aquin coach Todd Kramer said. “To me, it looked like he was on the first-base side of home.

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“They tell you at second base you have to slide into the bag. He took his feet from underneath him, but it is a questionable call that can go either way, especially when you’re looking into the safety of the kids. Fortunately we got the break.”

That turned out to be the last time Dakota had any runners on base. Shaw retired 12 batters in a row to end the game with the win.

Dakota finished with just three hits and drew a walk and reached base twice on getting hit by pitch. The Indians ended the year 12-8, but finished 1-2 against Aquin for the season including Saturday’s loss.

Dakota also lost its third straight regional game against Aquin and second in the regional final.

“This is a game I feel bad for (Brandon) Lizer and all our seniors,” Kauffman said. “I love those four kids that gave a lot to our program. I feel bad they had to go out like this, a game we should have won here.

“It was an awesome season and I think we outperformed what I thought we would do and we played error-free ball for the most part here and we depended on guys like Brandon Lizer and Tayler Burns.”